This is one of those “saw the TV series before I heard about the book” books. I mean it has Saffie in it. Anyways, this book is different, but it’s not bad. I just wish it had little more than in the way of a plot or was a straight out memoir.

The three books that make up this edition detail the life of the poor people (low class) that Flora Thompson came from. In this regard, it does make the first volume, “Lark Rise”, the best of the three. The level of detail and the almost chatty tone in Lark Rise make up for the slight lack of characterization. You can be there, and you can understand why it was adapted into a series. This falls off slightly in the second book, “Over Candleford,” though some of the charm is still there, and there is more reference to subjects that were taboo, such as drunkenness and its corresponding violence. The third volume, detailing Laura’s rise to a job is perhaps the weakest because while it is the closest to having a plot, it doesn’t quite, and the charm is missing in large sections.